Wilko Central Print - Limited Edition of 1

My current work stems from a project I began at university. In deciding what to do, I began by observing my immediate environment. I noticed the diversity of the people around me. Most had their heads down, unaware of their surroundings. I overheard people talking on the phone, planning the evening’s events, setting up a meeting, arguing with their partner. Over the next few weeks, I found that no matter where I was, people were seemingly oblivious or too busy to take in the subtle beauty of the world around us. Some would describe this as being “lost in your own world.” In response to this, I began to draw these people. I felt that I was capturing a moment in time, the environment and the people in it, giving them, and myself, an opportunity to stop and look. I travelled to London many times, drawing on the underground, in train stations and busy urban spaces. I had to develop a quick, fluid mark to capture as much of a character as I could in this short space of time. I realised that the urgency of the mark making mimicked the sense of 'pace' of the kind of people-populated environments I was drawing. My hurriedness to capture all the information in line spoke further of the atmosphere and tension of these places. After extensive studies of these places and hundreds of drawings later, I took to my studio and began to paint. I was very specific about the composition I chose, as I wanted the paintings to suggest not only a sense of immediacy, but also an environment within the canvas, evocative of someone lost in their own world. This work has developed into a series of paintings, which I’m currently completing. My most recent works are “A Modern Rake’s Progress” and “King Kanye V”, both of which are modern recreations of period paintings that spoke of the hierarchy of the aristocratic era. These “modern recreations” make a satirical comment on history’s cyclical nature and our fascination with hierarchy and celebrity culture.